To Dash or not to Dash
by sasper
Summary: Caitlyn finds herself stuck inside the world of My Little Pony with no prior knowledge of the show or characters. She is faced with trials, romance, and the ultimate problem of coping with this new life.
1. Chapter 1

The blackness of the sky was pierced by sheets of lighting. Almost immediately the thunder caused the ground to shake underneath me. Brian wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer as buckets of rain pelted on us.

"I love you," he said and nuzzled his nose against my neck. I could hardly hear him over the rumble of thunder and the patter of rain.

"Thank you for bringing me here," I responded. Earlier today I had been talking to him on the phone and he had been so excited about the forecasted storm. I told him that I hated storms because they always make me feel so . . . lonely. "Why don't I show you how amazing storms are?" he had suggested, and I agreed, mainly for the opportunity to spend more time with him. It's not easy being shy in a country where only the forward, outgoing, and rich girls can win over decent guys. Yet somehow Brian, just another classmate at high school, had broken through my shell, gotten to know me, and decided he liked what he saw. He was the antidote to my boredom, loneliness, and despair.

Now here I was, taking a leap of faith, soaking wet and chilled to the bone, yet thoroughly enjoying myself. The twenty acre lot Brian's dad owned in costal Texas was usually full of trees, Mosquitoes, and burning sun; however, sitting in the driveway, with dark clouds overhead, none of that was able to bother me.

Brian let go of me and lay back on the pavement. "It makes you feel so small, doesn't it?" he mused, "there could be anything out there or nothing at all." I shushed him with a kiss then said, "Don't talk like that. You know it scares me." he gently pushed my long brown hair away from my face and tucked it behind my ear, "you know I think you're amazing, and you know I'm glad you're alive."Brian paused then added, "Don't worry about the rest."

The sky was glowing orange through the grey as the sun began to set. I started shivering and rubbed my hands down the backs of my crossed arms. "Do you want some hot chocolate in a thermos?" he asked, "We can get you some dry clothes and sit on the porch if you want."  
"I'm fine," I responded, "but I would like hot chocolate."

Brian stood up, his black hair plastered to his head and the sides of her face. His chocolate brown eyes met mine and he kissed me on the forehead, "I'll be right back," he promised then ran inside.

The darkness seemed to press in on me, and my overactive imagination envisioned monsters and ghosts lurking just out of sight. I stood up and twirled around with my arms outstretched, trying to lighten my fear. Just then a bright light lit up the sky and I felt fire coursing through my veins. There was no time to scream, and there was no room for thought within the pain. As for sight, my eyes processed blinding white light that slowly faded to black as I slipped away.

I swam through a dark sea, unaware of time or space. At times I could feel my limbs, solid and reassuring. Yet others times I was nothing, just a blip of consciousness in a vast something. A sudden thud brought me back to life. Cracking my eyes open brought in a violent flood of light. "Ow!" I tried to yell, but it came out as a croak. My body ached. "Brian?" I asked, dazed and confused.

"What are you?" a strange voice asked me and I felt something hard poke my side. I tried cracking my eyes open again. This time I was able to make out a blue smudge hovering about me.  
"What the..?" I mumbled, "Are you a horse?"

To my surprise the blue . . . Thing . . . Shot into the sky above me and hid behind a cloud. I rolled over and pushed myself off of the green grass, groaning in pain.

"Oh god I must be hallucinating" I moaned as I realized I was staring at a life-sized pegasus. Slowly it, the blue smudge, descended towards me and asked again, "what are you?"  
"Um..." I responded with uncertainty, "a human..."

"Oh, cool!" it said, "I'm rainbow dash! You must be super special awesome because I've never seen anything like you before and you can talk! Can you fly? Trot? Gallop? Walk? Can you do flips? Watch this!" the rush of words was followed by a triple-back-flip-barrel-roll-oh-my-god-it's-moving-too-fast-to-follow flying action. Next thing I knew I was pinned on the ground with the blue Pegasus on top of me. "What's your name?" it asked.

"Caitlyn," I responded, wondering if there was any danger to telling a hallucination my name.

"Ooooh! That's a funny name!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed and I decided, by the squeal in her voice, that Rainbow Dash was a girl. The she shoved her face closer to mine, sniffing me. She lifted up my arms and examined then curiously, then did the same to my legs. "What's wrong with your legs?" she asked. I didn't have time to respond before she fired another question at me, "why are you dressed up? Why don't you have hooves? What's wrong with your mane? Where's your tail?-"

"Hold on! Hold on!" I interrupted, rubbing my temples as I felt a headache coming on. "Let me explain one thing at a time!" Rainbow sat down next to me and stared intently with her ginormous shining purple eyes locked on mine.

"I'm a human," I started, "and this means that I was born walking on two legs, with two arms by my side. I used to live on a planet called earth in a stated called Texas and now I don't know where I am" "Ponyville in Equestria!" she interjected "and I don't know how I got here" I continued, as though she hadn't interrupted, "except I think I got struck by lightning."

"Wait here!" she called out and shot off into the sky, "I think I can help!"

A dark cloud returned a minute or two later, "Hold still!" I heard rainbow dash yell. Then once again I saw a blinding flash, felt a rush of fire through my spine down two my toes, and I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

Soft covers caressed my body as I woke up. I happily thought that I was sure glad to be back at home in my bed. As I slowly regained consciousness I realized that it was actually an unfamiliar bed. Maybe I had slept over at Brian's and he had let me use his bed.

"Oh good she's moving." a motherly voice said next to me, dashing all my hopes of being at Brian's house. "You should really be careful Dash," the voice continued, "lightning can be very dangerous and could put some pony in a coma or worse."

"I didn't know," the blue Pegasus whined, "the human said it got here by being struck with lightening and I wanted to be helpful and send it back!"

"wahhs hahanin?" I asked, realizing too late that I didn't have full control of my mouth. I opened my eyes and found I couldn't focus them.

"Heehee!" a high-pitched, extremely feminine voice laughed, "you sound funny!"The bed bounced and a pink blur appeared within my fuzzy range of sight. "Hi! My name's pinkie pie!" the pink blur said as it bounced up and down on my chest, "every pony is going to be soo interested in meeting you! I'm going to throw a welcoming party for you as soon as you get out of the hospital! Oh! I had better get to planning it right away! See yah!"

I heard a door slam and I tried talking again "wuhd hahen?"

"Oh dear," the motherly voice said again. I felt drool slowly dribble from my mouth down my chin. I couldn't close my mouth!

"Its okay honey," I felt a napkin cleaning up my face and I realized that the voice must belong to a nurse or orderly-pony. I tried moving my other limbs, but got no response at all. "You're doing surprisingly well sugar," the nurse-pony said comfortingly probably noticing me trying to move, "there should only be minor brain damage and with any luck you will regain all of your senses and abilities in no time at all."

I blinked feverishly, desperately trying to get my eyes to work. Frustrated, I closed my eyes and started to cry. Not only was I stuck in a vivid nightmare, but I was starting to think the dream was reality. The pit in my stomach grew and engulfed me. Bile rose in my throat and I tried to scream. I started praying to a god I was raised to believe in, a god who had never been there for me before. I begged him to end my suffering, to let me out of this hell.

A soft white light filled the room and a faint smell of strawberries brushed my awareness. "Princess Celestia!" exclaimed the nurse and Rainbow Dash, I had forgotten the both of them were in the room with me. The light glowed brighter and I felt something warm, hard, and glass-smooth touch my forehead. Instantly my eyes were opened and I saw the most beautiful horse leaning over my hospital bed. Her light purple eyes staring straight at me made my heart beat faster, and her flowing purple green blue hair sent goose bumps down my body. The look she sent me made me want to hide my face and stop existing, "I'm sorry," I croaked starting to cry again. "I'm sorry," I repeated in an attempt avoid the wrath of the Goddess/princess. "It's ok, Caitlyn" she said and her eyes softened a little. "Rest now." she commanded, and I obediently complied.

* * *

I awoke once again with the impression that I was safe and sound in my own bed. Unfortunately reality hit me quickly and I was forced to face Princess Celestia. I felt much calmer in her presence now, though still very apologetic and guilty. I pushed myself up into a sitting position in the hospital bed only to discover that I was completely naked. With my cheeks burning, I hastily tried to cover myself with the sheets again.

"Your clothes are on the bedside table." The Princess told me, "I will leave the room while you put them on, if you desire it." Embarrassed further, I nodded. Her blowing mane departed along with a glowing feeling of warmth and happiness. I also had a chance to notice that the princess had not only a unicorn horn, but pegasi wings, and a mark on her flank in the shape of a yellow sun.  
My jeans and grey T-shirt that I had used to blend into the crowd with at school now hung loosely away from my body. As if in response to noticing this, my stomach started growling with hunger. I put my hand into my pocket, expecting to find a stick of gum, but instead pulled out an even greater anomaly for this magical world- my iPod.

"Are you decent yet?" Celestia's regal voice called through the door. I shoved my iPod back into my pocket then went and open the door for the princess. She glided in with rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and the nurse following close behind.

"Please sit down." princess Celestia requested. "I am concerned greatly about the safety and happiness of every pony within Equestria," her pleasant voice said "and with the recent changeling attack I feel it would be in every pony's best interest to keep Caitlyn's arrival a secret. Pinkie Pie, I trust you to keep it a surprise that Caitlyn is here, until I inform you otherwise. Nurse Cherry Blossom, I expect that your doctor patient confidentiality contract will keep your silence about this alien being's existence. As for you two, Rainbow Dash and Caitlyn," her eyes once again turned towards me and I couldn't help squirming. "I'm requesting that the both of you come and visit me at my castle until we can sort out the situation."

"Why do I have to go?" Rainbow Dash whined, "I had a race planned for this afternoon so that I could show that no good Pegasus Cloud Burst who's the better flier and then I" princess Celestia cut her off, "the wonder bolts will be in Canterlot, and I assumed you would want to see them." pretending to be reluctant, rainbow Dash agreed to go to Canterlot with me and the princess.

"Two hours after sunset, I want the both of you to get on the train" Celestia told us after dismissing the nurse. "Rainbow Dash will know where to go. Once you arrive in Canterlot, I will send a member of my royal guard to come and escort both of you. Remember, stay out of sight. Now I must go and attend court." with that being said, she gracefully swept out of the room and out of sight.  
"Welll..." began Rainbow Dash, " now that fancy pants is out of the room what do you want to play! Catch? Flip? Bounce? Poker?" Once again I had to tell her to hold her horses and be quiet. Then I asked for food and a book to read while passing the time. Excited, Dash took off, exclaiming that she knew just what I should read. A surprisingly short time later the light blue pegasus with rainbow hair returned carrying a book and a plateful of cupcake. I immediately dug into the cupcakes, "will you real out loud for me?" I asked mouth full of sweet, delicious, cake. "Of course!" rainbow dash responded, "you have to hear this totally awesome story!"

We both sat on my bed, she, enthusiastically reading a tale about an adventurous pony, and I, listlessly listening and stuffing my face.

When the last cupcake was gone I licked my fingers clean and started to feel a mixture of happy and sleepy. Without thinking, I ran my fingers through Dash's hair (who was curled up at the foot of my bed reading), just like I would pet my cat, Boots, at home. Unfazed, Dash kept reading aloud the words written on the page.

When we were both standing, Rainbow Dash's head came up to about chest height, but while lying down, she could pass off as a big cat, such as a panther or a lion.

I continued stroking her rainbow mane, fascinated with how silky and untangled it was after a day of whipping in the wind. I also noticed another interesting feature of her mane hair, It wasn't 5 toned, only three different colors. The red yellow and blue strands blended gradually to create orange and green in the right places. The short blue body hair was equally silky, but also more like down, especially around her wings, where the area turned to down and then fletching feathers.

I was so entranced with petting her that I took me a while to realize when she had stopped reading. Head lying on the book, eyes shut, Dash had fallen fast asleep. I looked to the window, saw that the sun was only just setting, and then decided to let her sleep. Pulling my iPod back out of my pocket, I was surprised to see that it still worked. I set a timer to go off in two hours, curled up under the covers, and fell asleep.

Two hours later the obnoxious beeping from my iPod dragged me out of a light dreamless sleep.

"Wake up, Rainbow Dash," I called, while shaking her back with my foot.

She jumped up and hastily said, "I wasn't sleeping!" I laughed at her and said, "ok, but it's time to go now."

"Right!" Rainbow Dash replied, ready for action. "I don't feel like sneaking around on foot because that's lame, so why don't you climb on my back and we'll fly?" she asked.

"Uuum..." I hesitated, worried about my weight, "won't that hurt you or something?"

She gaily laughed and shrugged that off, "No, silly, I'm the strongest flyer in Ponyville, If any pony can do it, I can." I hesitated more, and she asked, "What's the matter? Are you afraid of flying?" her tone was almost mocking and I quickly told her that no, I am not afraid of flying; I just thought she couldn't do it.

Regardless, I didn't want to be labeled as a scardy-cat, so I opened the window, and then climbed on her back.

Rainbow Dash took off easily and soared out of the hospital window. The stars were bright, and the streets beneath us almost black. It was summer time on Earth before I left, and it seemed that new land was experiencing summer too; however, up in the air with wind rushing past, my teeth were clattering. I tried not to look down, and clung tightly to Rainbow Dash with my arms and legs. If she hadn't flown so smoothly, I'm sure I would have slipped off because of how silky she was.  
When we finally reached the train platform I slipped off of her back quickly, grateful for solid ground.

The conductor greeted us suspiciously, eying me as if I were a poisonous spider. But we immediately got on the train and began our trip to Canterlot.


End file.
